It sounds as if you aren't passing a reference to %ARGS to the subroutine but instead %ARGS itself. Observe:

#!/usr/bin/perl -wl
use strict;

my %hash = (something => 1,precinct => 2);

sub test {
  my $new = shift;
  print $new->{'precinct'};
}

eval {
  print "as ref:";
  test(\%hash);
};
print $@ ? "Died: $@$/":"No error$/";
eval {
  print "as hash:";
  test(%hash);
};
print $@ ? "Died: $@$/":"No error$/";

__END__
as ref:
2
No error

as hash:
Died: Can't use string ("precinct") as a HASH ref while "strict refs" 
+in use at test.pl line 8.
[download]

Of course, I may be wrong. In either case, I hope this helps.

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